The first time anyone told me about goetta after I moved to Cincinnati, they said it was "sort of like scrapple, except with oats instead of cornmeal."

"Oh, OK," I thought, because I'd heard of scrapple and knew what it was: cornmeal and meat scraps. I have since repeated this to Cincinnati newcomers. "Yeah, goetta. It's kind of like scrapple."

I'm never using this comparison again. First of all, I realized a few decades into saying this that I'd never actually had scrapple.

Secondly, the comparison often clarifies nothing since a lot of people, if they're not from Pennsylvania or Delaware or Maryland, have ever had scrapple either, or even heard of it.

Thirdly, I have now actually eaten scrapple, and goetta is so much better that the comparison gives scrapple too much credit.

So, goetta is a German-inspired breakfast meat made by combining steel-cut or 'pinhead' oats with pork or pork and beef and cooking it for a long time. It's chilled in a loaf pan, then sliced and fried until crisp. (Or if it's Glier's, it's formed into a tube.)

Scrapple is also German-inspired (The Amish make it and call it pon haas, or "pork rabbit.") and is always pork, mixed with cornmeal, cooked for a long time, put in a loaf pan, then sliced and fried until crisp.

Sounds like a slight variation. But the differences are key.

Buy Photo

Jones Country Style Scrapple and Glier's Goetta in their packaging on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, in Cincinnati. (Photo: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer)

The steel-head oats in goetta are the secret to its delightful texture. They are why you should always fry goetta with a splatter screen over the pan to keep the jumping and exploding grains of oats from popping and flying everywhere. Once cooked, they add a textural interest, with a sort of chewy, nubbly, popping feel. A well-cooked piece of goetta is both crisp and chewy, and if cut thick, a little creamy.

The cornmeal in scrapple has none of that interest. It's fine-ground and contributes only, well, a mealy texture. It doesn't get truly crisp, just forms a sort of thin crust on the outside.

But more importantly, scrapple, at least the scrapple I tried, which I bought in the frozen meat section at Kroger, includes pork liver. I like liver. Avril's liverwurst is delightful to me, and so is fine liver pate. I grew up on pork liver, which my parents bought because it's cheaper than calves' liver.

But in the context of scrapple, it's awful. It makes the mixture a grayish-green. It's ickily smooth and makes it that much harder to get crisp. The spice and herb flavorings are stronger in scrapple, maybe to cover up the taste of liver. And its texture just makes the whole thing suspect, like there are unidentified innards in it.

I never feel that way with goetta, especially the good stuff from a local butcher. It's often made with no scraps at all, since we now eat it because we love it, not because we're saving bits from the season's butchering.